MEET OUR TEAM

RealS8 – Your Realtor® Team in Anchorage

As a real estate buyer or seller you know your transaction needs to be taken seriously. When you have Bethany Stamper and Niel Thomas as your real estate representatives, you get just that.

a steadfast commitment to your welfare

an in-depth knowledge of the market

a sense of fair play

a conscientious work ethic

community involvement that adds to your relationship

When you work with Bethany and Niel of Coldwell Banker Best Properties, you are tapping into a combined 40 years of licensed real estate activity and over 80 years of living in Anchorage!

We call it RealS8 (to be read, “Real-S-8” = “RealEstate”). That’s this web address www.RealS8.com. It came from the fact that RealS8 is the maximum number of characters that fit on an Alaska license plate. Watch for Bethany’s car and wave to her!

Niel Thomas began the venture in 1983, and Bethany became a working partner about 10 years ago. In more recent years Bethany has become the team leader, as a Realtor® who in her own right has gained the trust and respect of dozens of clients through the course of nearly 500 transactions during her association with Niel. Niel is currently “of counsel”, as they say in law firms, lending a senior-level of experience to clients and transactions as needed while Bethany supervises the team and works closely with clients on most business decisions.

Bethany and Niel aren’t the whole show, of course. We are the team builders for our clients, with every client having different requirements and needs from team players. Read on here, for more on our team members.

Bethany Stamper

Bethany first met with Niel over ten years ago, to consider a working relationship. He told her that the work, and even Niel himself, could be “too demanding” for a new licensee. Her answer, given without a thought, was “So, you want stuff done?”

That orientation to “getting clients’ stuff done” has been Bethany’s strength, even trademark, in real estate.

People think of real estate folks being informed on the market, having good people skills, and a drive to succeed. The part that’s not always noticed – because almost nobody sees the whole scope of a Realtor’s® day – is the traffic manager part of the job. That’s the rare ability to keep all the participants in a real estate transaction playing the same music, in the same key, and measure-for-measure on time.

Bethany is one who meets all three tests: the test of market expertise, the test of people skills, and the test of staying organized.

Youngest children in a family often find themselves pushing hard to get their needs met. Bethany, the youngest of four, may have her drive to succeed rooted in her childhood. Certainly an orientation of service may be flowing from a mother who is an ordained minister, and a father whose 40-year career in the Air Force was firefighting. (And, they say Bethany is especially clever at putting out fires in real estate transactions!)

As for those older brothers and sisters, her oldest brother runs a wilderness survival company, started after he retired from the Air Force. Her next brother was in the Navy for six years and her sister is a massage therapist and also a support player in the Bethany-Niel real estate office.

Her parents met in Alaska around the time of the 1964 earthquake. They moved back to Alaska when Bethany was only six. She graduated from East High. People often note Bethany’s people skills, and she remembers that “East High has so many kids from vastly different backgrounds, so I had to learn to get along with everybody!”

Achievement-oriented Bethany held the highest JROTC position, Battalion Commander, in high school. She was a national finalist in graphic design under the Business Professionals of America’s high school program. She started working at age 12!

In high school Bethany interned at ARCO and went to work for the company full-time after high school. She graduated a semester early, and signed on to support the process of ARCO’s merger with BP.

Married in 2000, Bethany’s children are now 15 and 11. “I went to real estate school in 2005 with a baby in tow,” she remembers. Her license arrived right after that initial training and she and Niel soon began their long and successful association. “I started out thinking I would work in real estate part time, and now I work time-and-half,” she says. “But I thrive on being busy.”

Niel Thomas

Niel is Executive Vice President and one of the founding members of Fortune Properties, Inc., now Coldwell Banker Best Properties. A Realtor® since 1983, Niel's clients have historically been mid- to upper-end residential and commercial-investment real estate buyers and sellers, corporate owners of foreclosed property, and corporate relocation service providers.

Niel's leadership in professional groups enables him to make the most of technologies for marketing and identifying property. Niel is one of only three Alaska licensees holding both "PhD's in real estate," designations of the National Association of Realtors® that signify the highest levels of knowledge and achievement in residential and commercial real estate.

Niel's record of even-handed dealing, fair play and justice flows from:

• Locally Niel’s service to the Anchorage Board of Realtors as mediator and chair of arbitration panels hearing allegations of Realtor ethics violations and fee disputes was recognized in 2015 by his being named “Realtor® of the Year”.
• Niel is also an Accredited Buyer Representative (ABR), certified by the National Association of Realtors.
• Alaska MLS, Inc., publishes the listings of brokers across Alaska. Niel is Past President
• Niel has served as a member of the Anchorage Board of Equalization. This board of real estate experts was appointed by the Anchorage Assembly to hear cases where a taxpayer questions assessed value.
• Involved in numerous community activities, Niel has been a member of the Anchorage Downtown Rotary Club, Commonwealth North, and the Chugach State Park Citizens Advisory Board.

In years past, Niel wrote the column on real estate for the statewide business newspaper, the Alaska Journal of Alaska Commerce. The column covered a variety of commercial and residential real estate subjects of interest to Alaskan business and professional readers. The National Association of Realtors published an article he wrote for its national magazine on proper procedures for handling multiple offers on real estate. He has often serve as a trainer of new associates and lecturer on real estate to community and professional groups.

An Alaskan resident since 1974, Niel is a graduate of Cornell University and past president of the Cornell Club of Alaska. He served under Governor Jay Hammond from 1975-82 as director of the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights. For a time in the early 1980's he was the only Alaskan labor arbitrator certified by both the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and the American Arbitration Association. A tournament bridge player, he holds the rank of Life Master.

Bethany and Niel have been helping Alaskans find their way home for over 40 years now.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Here are what some of our satisfied clients have to say about us.

I also give you and Bethany my highest recommendation! You guys are the best realtors I have ever worked with. This is my 4th house purchase, but the first that was low stress. - Judy Ward

Thank you for your help negotiating and finalizing this sale. I think this is a beautiful piece of property, and we purchased at a very good price. It was very reassuring to have had your advice and help with all the paperwork, negotiations, and due diligence advice. You did an awesome, professional job for us. - Matt and Patty Kirchhoff

Thank you for all your valuable assistance in facilitating the purchase of our new home. You are a great communicator and true to your word . . . great assets in this day and age. We really appreciated how quick to respond you were with every situation. - Don & Cindy Lee

Some interesting stats here

14

Service Providers

Average number of service providers who “touch” a typical real estate transaction, not counting support staff, at some point between the sales agreement and closing.

64

Transactions

Average annual number of buyer or seller real estate transactions involving the Bethany-Niel real estate team.

20

Million Dollars

Millions of dollars of property values attributed to Bethany-Niel transactions most recent years.